Red Faces and the Budding of Maturity
by vanitybang
Summary: When Luffy re-joins his crew after two years in training, Nami briefly observes something unusual about her captain. Before she can become intrigued enough to investigate, the subject matter pays her a visit himself. LuffyxNami. Post-timeskip. Oneshot.


She stood there, dumbfounded – she was finally face to face with the person who was responsible for freeing her from her past life and giving her a new one. Two years of being separated from her crewmates. Nami never lost hope of them being reunited in the end. The ship was her home, and when Luffy stepped on deck, completing their crew, it was just like picking up right where they left off.

"Hey, Luffy", she muttered lowly, not sure of what caused her uncertainity. Luffy shot her his trademark toothy grin and chuckled lightly. She was awfully happy to see him. The feeling she got when she laid her eyes upon his frame was unlike any other that she experienced in her life – well, she suspected that finally buying her beloved village from Arlong after eight years of struggle, sadness and fury would be somewhat similiar. Being met with something she really desired... only in this case, she never realized how much she missed him up until this point, and the other Straw Hats too.

Luffy stood in front of his crew, glued to his stance. He was giving them the most sincere smile she'd seen in the past two years. Nami examined her captain thoroughly with her gaze. At first, she thought he hadn't changed much - aside from becoming slightly more muscular and sporting different clothes, everything seemed to be exactly in place. His eyes, however, had a spark of something new in them.

And then there was, of course, his newly acquired scar.

His outfit, which comprised of a red medium-sleeved cardigan (it appeared to be lacking buttons, or at least Luffy was making no use of them), a yellow sash wrapped around his waist, his usual jean shorts and even more usual flip-flops, and of course his straw hat in place, gave Nami an unobstructed view of his bare torso. Right across his chest lay and X-shaped scar, practically covering the entire area of his breast. The wound was not only wide, it was also deep, the navigator thought. That scar was there to stay.

It was normal, even expected, for Luffy to be sporting cuts, scabs, wounds and bruises at all times and of all kinds. He fought a lot, after all and he always seemed to be quite reckless when it came to his body's condition. As days on the ship would pass by, his injuries only changed shape, form, color and texture. Nami was used to seeing him bloodied, damaged and beaten up - she knew he was hurt, but he never complained about it.

But this scar? It made her heart sink a little. She winced at the mere thought of the suffering that whatever it was that left it (it looked burned to her, but she decided not to waste her nerves trying to figure out who, and with what power, did this) must have, undoubtedly, caused. Luffy was strong, but she had a hard time imagining what kind of wound could leave a scar like this. He was quite likely on the verge of death upon receiving a blow of this caliber. Nami felt a sting of anger in her stomach, followed by a wave of distress washing over her.

He must have noticed her staring as he moved to approach her. "What's up, Nami?", he halted a few steps away from her, resting his hands on his hips, seemingly unfazed by the idea of someone glaring so intently at his unerasable memento. Nami looked up at his face and, seeing his grin still in place, gave him a small, uncomfortable smile. "It looks painful", she stated matter-of-factly, feeling her features tense into a frown. "I don't mind", he replied, "besides, it looks really cool, doesn't it?".

Luffy broke into a giggle, leaving Nami conflicted: should she, in this situation, a) punch him in the face, b) laugh along, trying to hide the tears forming in her eyes and resisting the urge to hug him tightly, or c) jump across the board, hoping he would follow and drown? She hung her head and shut her eyes for a second, holding herself in. Seeing Luffy calm down from his laughing fit, the navigator looked up with a relaxed, indulgent expression. "You're still an idiot", she exclaimed, encouraged by the amusement in Luffy's eyes, "That much hasn't changed".

"And you're still really mean", he retorted, pouting childishly.

* * *

Nami was almost done organizing her quarter. She had been on the ship for a few days before Luffy's arrival, but she found settling down hard with their crew incomplete. She procrastinated while trying to do it, walking pointlessly around the deck and striking up conversations with Robin once in a while. She also tried helping Sanji with cooking at some point, though unfortunately, he didn't appreciate anyone (even his beloved Nami-swan) keeping anywhere within range of the counters and she was abruptly, albeit very politely asked to step away from the kitchen. But having Luffy aboard meant everything was exactly as before and she could return to her routine.

She looked outside the little window of her quarter. It was a few minutes after sunset and the sky had since taken on a light shade of grey. She was pretty sure it was spotless and the water would be as calm as it gets throughout the entire night. She considered going to take a bath, when she suddenly heard two soft knocks on the door. The navigator walked up to the door and opened it slowly. Seeing Luffy in front of her didn't surprise her nearly as much as she'd have expected it to.

"Luffy? What's the matter?", she asked, taking note of the hat missing from his head. She received no response.

What she did receive, however, was Luffy's hands encircling her frame and pulling her to his chest, enclosing the distance between them. Nami's first instinct was to push him away defensively and punch his guts, but the strength for physical violence, shouting and even clenching her teeth died within her as she came to realize the hug was not a boisterous squeeze, intended to mess around with her. It was a heartfelt embrace. Although Nami was startled, she couldn't help but wrap her own hands around her captain's waist. She eased from the tension a little and rested her chin on Luffy's shoulder, feeling her nostrils fill with a mix of the sea's salty scent, as well as a characteristic boyish fragrance. His raven hair tickled her left cheek a bit and she felt a few small, hard objects pressing onto her stomach and chest (so that cardigan did have buttons after all). It was a gentle moment and she was shocked to find out how much she'd been enjoying the unpredicted closeness with her captain.

Nami felt the embrace around her loosen and Luffy moving away slightly. She was disappointed – if this were anyone else, she'd suspect they had started feeling awkward, but Luffy was as unpredictable as a coin flipped into a raging storm, landing on a pile of soft, bouncy jello. (She mentally cringed at her brain coming up with that comparison). Who knew if it was going to be heads or tails.

He looked a little sheepish, which was odd enough knowing the nature of her captain. Being genuinely curious, as well as wanting to break the silence between them, Nami spoke up, "You still haven't answered my question". She felt bad for sounding harsh, but this was Luffy. He probably didn't mind. Plus, she was far too interested in his reaction.

He seemed to have trouble recalling the navigator's inquiry, but he had an idea of what she was expecting of him. "I wanted to show you that I'm really happy to see you", he answered simply with a determined expression.

Luffy's response caught Nami off guard. She was suspecting that, but somehow, hearing something like that leave his lips was slightly uncharacteristic, but at the same time, very much like him. Now she only wanted to know one more thing...

"Why didn't you do that when we were talking on deck earlier today, then?"

Luffy's eyes widened a little in confusion. "Dunno", he said, truly not being capable of answering that question. He lowered his head and seemed to get lost in thought for a moment.

Nami wasn't angry with him. Sometimes his honesty was a curse (moreso to her than to him) – he would often make stupid, once in a while even hurtful, comments, which usually got them into trouble of all sorts. (Thankfully, he did have relatively good judgement of when he should speak and when he should remain silent.) But at times like these, his complete and total inability to lie came over as a blessing. With Luffy, Nami never felt the need to warp the truth or deceive him – that was just how he was – he could grasp the concept of manipulation, he saw other people use it, but the thought of taking advantage of it himself never crossed his mind.

Eventually, the captain looked up at her with the same confidence in his eyes as he'd shown earlier – and that spark of 'something new' was shining through it. Nami had no idea what to expect of him. She couldn't read his stare.

"I didn't want anyone else with us" Luffy spoke and the navigator could've sworn she saw his cheeks flush softly.

Luffy was nowhere near romantic with that statement, but it made Nami's knees weak regardless.

Could it mean that the air-headed, sexually undefined captain was slowly understanding intimacy? Well, she had found the fact that he kept his distance from her throughout the entire welcoming strange, but she didn't give it that much thought. A lot of things happened in his life as of recent, so he had full right to be as weird as he needed to. Nami had no idea the issue would be so closely related to herself, though... But if she could help him, she would do so in a heartbeat, the image of Arlong Park collapsing to pieces still as vivid in her mind as ever. And here was her chance.

"Is it weird, Nami?", he asked, looking concerned about her silence, "I'm sorry if you didn't like it".

She glanced at him, hardly believing that her captain could be this adorable. He kept playing with his pockets, obviously worried about Nami's reaction.

"No, it's not weird at all", she laughed, genuinely surprised at how Luffy was acting in this situation, "It's actually really brave of you".

He looked up at her, a glimpse of shock written across his features. "Why?"

It was a simple question, yet she had a hard time finding an answer easy enough for her clueless captain to follow. Usually, she would have lost all her patience by now, but she was too fascinated with how this encounter was escalating to simply shout at him and leave a few ugly bruises on his head.

"Because... when you want to be alone with someone, it means that they're special to you", she replied and paused, but knew she had to elaborate judging by Luffy's blank stare, "Most people are afraid of doing what you just did... I mean showing your emotions. Admitting that I'm s-special to you". She stuttered upon finishing her sentence, the realization that Luffy had been at least (unbeknownst to him) crushing on his red-headed navigator dawning upon her.

Luffy tilted his head, his expression clearly one of disbelief. "Huh? Why would anyone be scared? Does it make people unable to eat meat or something?"

Nami, slowly becoming stripped off of her patience by the monkey-boy (not only in name, but she was pretty sure also in intelligence) in front of her, felt that she needed to sit down if this was going to go at this agonizingly sluggish pace. She turned around with a sigh and gestured towards Luffy for him to come in. He seemed hesitant for a moment, but he entered her room as instructed. "Sit", she pointed to her bed and Luffy immediately obliged. Nami seated herself across her captain on the chair she usually used when she was drawing maps, face to face with him.

"Look, Luffy. When you really like someone, you really want them to like you back. This becomes something very important to you. So as time passes by, you start to become really anxious about messing things up for that person. So telling this person that they are very special to you becomes harder and harder, because the longer you choose not to do it, the more anxious you become. Do you understand?" Nami couldn't think of a simpler way to explain crushes. This was becoming a pain.

Luffy nodded slowly, breaking eye contact with the navigator briefly to stare at his feet for a moment. When he looked up with his eyes widened, she knew she hit the right switch. They were getting somewhere.

"People are kinda strange", he beamed at her, "I never would've thought of it this way".

Once again, she thought of his sincerity as something admirable. He was a little... detached, and slow, but Nami found herself not caring about these flaws too much when he was able to be this genuine.

"Luffy", she said seriously, slightly uneasy (partly because he was so unpredictable, partly because he would tell her the truth, regardless of whether it would hurt her), "Do you... like this feeling?".

He looked at her, puzzled. "I don't know", he answered honestly, "I didn't like it until I came here. But when you started talking to me, I felt really good, now that I think of it. I was worried when you got quiet. But I don't think you're mad at me, so I'm happy".

Nami prayed to all gods that Luffy won't know what her red face meant. He was so simple-minded.

"Whoa, Nami, are you feeling okay?", he shot up from his slouched posture and leaned in to look at the flustered navigator, "You looked like this when you had that horrible fever! I'll go get Chopper to take a look at you..."

She was embarrassed - it was clearly showing all to well on her face. „No, no, I'm okay! _I'm okay! _I'm not sick!", the navigator reached for Luffy's wrist to stop him, as he was already on his way the door. He still seemed troubled, but decided to listen to Nami's pleas and refrain from having Chopper come over... at least for now. He returned to his spot on the bed, waiting for Nami to speak up about why she forbid him from getting the treatment that she _obviously_ needed so urgently.

_"How the hell do I explain it to him?"_, she thought, playing with her cherished bracelet, trying to collect herself. She desperately avoided locking eyes with him, but she knew he was growing impatient. She decided it better to tell him the truth (in the simplest way possible) before he punched a hole through the ceiling to get Chopper to come here, or something...

"It's... It's because I'm happy", Nami uttered, feeling the tension in her stomach rise to her throat with a steady wave.

"You're happy?", Luffy didn't appear convinced, "You don't look happy".

Oh God, why was this so difficult?! She didn't feel like spilling her heart right on the spot and the last thing she expected of today was that it would get so messy.

"It's a kind of h-happiness... when someone special tells you that you're really special to them. Or shows you. And it just makes you act all stupid and you don't know what to do...", the navigator was quite positive that her cheeks couldn't get any redder if they tried to. She never would have thought that she would be confessing to Luffy, of all people, the person who hardly even understood why Sanji was so fond of women. "Y-You... made me happy".

Nami was sitting leaned over, doing her best to get her face to hide underneath her hair. Why was she so embarrassed in front of Luffy? _Because_ of Luffy? There was no need for her to be so bewildered about the whole situation – it was just Luffy. He didn't understand anyway, she could have easily just lied to him and it would have never gotten to the point of her sitting there, blushing furiously, because this stupid boy had been so successful in spending the entire evening annoying the hell out of her and being _cute_ and _sincere_ and _innocent_...

She felt two strong palms being placed on her arms and when she looked up to give him and angry glare and swat his hands away, she saw his gaze. It was the same determination and concern that she'd seen before, but this time she managed to identify the mysterious spark that was picking at her interest the entire day... it seemed like a strange kind of seriousness, laced with... empathy? Consideration?

"I have no idea how I made you happy", Luffy spoke up when he noticed he had her full attention, "I only want to know if I can hug you again".

Nami felt something sharp shoot through her brain and the next thing she knew, she was blinking frantically, hoping that a sneaky tear won't escape her eye. Luffy didn't understand why she was acting this way, but he knew she liked it when he hugged her back there. He wanted to make _her_ feel good. He cared about _her_ emotions.

That 'something' gleaming in his eye all this time was nothing else but the sublime budding of maturity.

"Of course."


End file.
